Ross Baltic, a managing partner with Mercury Partners, a headhunter in Midtown, said the simplest transition might be the most straightforward: Analysts for investment banks might leap to the industries they analyzed, traders might move to the companies they bought and sold. “They may know the pharmaceutical industry, they may know aerospace and defense,” he said. “You may have skill sets and be able to transfer those to those sectors.”

But while Mr. Baltic said laid-off Wall Street workers had been calling ... “We’re long on candidates and short on jobs,” he said.

Now here's the humor -

While many of the tens of thousands of masters of the unemployed universe would most likely happily return to doing what they know, others may be looking for a change of pace.

Lead walking tours amid the ruins of your past life. Who better to show people around the financial district than someone who has worked — who has bled — on the very spot?

Maybe, said Seth Kamil, founder of Big Onion Walking Tours. But Big Onion tour guides must have advanced degrees in history. ...

Become a butler. “Somebody coming from the Wall Street arena typically would have management background,”

It can be a handsome living. “Butlers are starting at around $70,000 on the low end, to upwards of $150,000 a year,” Mr. Greenhouse said. “I’ve got to tell you, the salaries are terrific. A really good nanny could make $100,000-plus a year, plus benefits. That’s a top nanny.”

Of course, there is the possible awkwardness of a man used to having someone light his cigar for him suddenly finding himself on the other end of the match. But Mr. Greenhouse said he was used to riches-to-rags sorts crossing his threshold: “Divorcees coming in who were married to multimillionaires. All of a sudden they need to go to work and they come to us looking for a personal assistant job: ‘Oh, I know about this because I’ve had the rich lifestyle myself. I know how to take care of rich people’s affairs.’

Sell cigars. Great idea, said Anthony Cee, manager at Florio’s in Little Italy, which contains the Three Little Indians Cigar Shop. The image of the Wall Street big shot, the Gordon Gekko type, is exactly what his store likes to project. ...

Shred documents. No one knows sensitive paperwork like a Wall Street veteran. Just ask Al Vari, a salesman with Code Shred, whose service area includes Lower Manhattan.

“I spent 25 years on Wall Street, and now I’m in the shredding industry with two friends of mine,” he said. “It’s not an easy business. ...